Medal of Honor recipients: Very few

Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry has done something few people are able to do — leave “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart speechless.

A lot of people react that way when Petry, an Army Ranger, talks about his duty behind his Medal of Honor. That’s also rare, since most recent recipients of the nation’s highest military award didn’t live to tell their stories. Of the 11 service members whose valor in combat since the end of the Vietnam War earned them Medals of Honor, only two survived to have the medal draped around their necks by the president.

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The two – Petry and former Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta — are now the new faces of military heroism. They’ll soon be joined by a third, former Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer, who’s reported to have been approved for the award for his actions in a battle in Afghanistan in 2009.

“Having a medal is a great opportunity to influence [a] positive impact on younger soldiers, children — walks of all life in our nation,” Petry told reporters at a Pentagon news conference last week. “It’s a great opportunity to do what you can with it.” His “Daily Show” appearance is just one of many things that have kept Petry busy since President Barack Obama awarded him the medal at the White House on July 12. During his trip to New York, Petry and his family also attended a Broadway show and were honored guests at a Mets game.

Giunta faced the same grind of public appearances after getting the medal Nov. 16 until he left the Army last month to attend Colorado State University. And Petry said he sought Giunta’s advice on how to handle all the publicity.

“He said, ‘Just be careful that you don’t say “yes” to everything because you can get overwhelmed’, and I was the first one to say I have no problem with that, because I know that I have a family that’s important to me at home,” Petry said.

The attention focused on Giunta — and now Petry — reflects the amazement Americans feel about their stories, suggested retired Marine Maj. Bruce Norton, a Vietnam veteran and author of “The Encyclopedia of American War Heroes.”

“They shouldn’t be,” he said. “That’s the spirit of the American fighting man to do that.”

But those stories have come after years of controversy over tales of heroism that didn’t withstand scrutiny and a perception that the military was being too stingy in honoring true valor.

Nine Medals of Honor have been awarded for actions since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — five from Afghanistan and four from Iraq. Two others were awarded to Army snipers who gave their lives in Somalia in 1993 in an effort to protect a downed helicopter pilot from capture.